//------------------------------//
// A Moonless Night 
// Story: The Red Sun Rises: Siege of Manehattan 
// by The Atlantean 
//------------------------------//

	It turns out that the expected assault never came. Nightfall came, and no word of enemy movement was reported. Every moment without battle was a moment of anxiety.
Luna had chosen to remain in the building with Crimson. After her entourage arrived, she still didn’t move from her spot in front of the map table. She had some very interesting points to add to the defense plan, and the soldier accepted them for consideration.
At about twenty-one hundred hours, Crimson and Luna walked outside to show her the supplies. They got there and she nodded. It was an efficient system that the colonel had put in place.

They had turned around an hour later to go back to the headquarters when the hairs in Crimson’s mane stood on end. His soldier’s instinct kicked in and he jumped between the unseen threat and Luna. He raised his repeater with his wing, stared down the sights, and looked for any movement in the silent city before him.
It came from the left. An arrow whizzed towards the two and slammed into Luna’s side. She cried out in pain. Crimson immediately whirled around and fired several shots into the black. A loud cry sounded out, and he knew his target was been hit.
Turning to the princess, he saw a heavyweight arrow, designed to burrow right through the body and out the other side. To his horror, that’s exactly what it did. A hole in Luna ten centimeters wide was filling with blood at an alarming rate, and spilling into the street. He dropped his repeater to the ground to try to stem the flow.
“Princess! I- I don’t know what to do!”
Hearing Crimson’s gun go off, many ponies from the supply depot galloped over. They saw the heavyweight arrow, Luna in a pool of blood, and their commander doing his best to save her life. One pony raced to assist Crimson, and the others soon followed.
“Get a medic!” someone called, and an ensign, a Pegasus, flew at top speed to the medical ward, over a kilometer away.
“I- I can’t breathe!” Luna choked. She coughed up a storm of blood, and started to go into shock.
“No! Stay with me, Luna! You’re gonna be fine!” Crimson yelled. But he knew it was hopeless. Heavyweight arrows always killed whoever they were shot at.
Luna could see that she would surely die. “Crimson, I want you… to… tell Celestia something.”
“I won’t! Don’t die on me, Princess!”
“Tell Celestia that…” Her voice trailed off and gurgled from the blood. She coughed to clear her throat, and continued. “Tell her that I’m sorry. For everything. And that I forgive her.” She painfully looked into his eyes. “Please.”
He stopped trying to stem the blood, leaving the others to do that, and held her head in his hooves. No amount of training or conditioning could prevent tears from visibly welling up in his eyes. “I’ll do it, Luna. For you.”
“No, not for me. For Tia.” She coughed again, and tried to say something more, but the life was already almost gone. “I… I love…”
“Luna! Stay with me for a bit longer!”
“Her. Like- like a sister.”
Her head fell back, and the Princess of the Night was dead.
“No! Why? Luna!” Crimson wailed. “Not now.” He buried his head into hers, tears streaming down his face.
The Pegasus returned with some medics and a stretcher. When he saw the dead alicorn, he bowed his head in failure. The medics flew to Crimson, sorrow spread across their faces.
One of the soldiers from the supply depot asked, “Sir, what are your orders?”
“Go down that street. Find the pony with a large crossbow next to him and bring him to me.”
They saluted, and galloped in the direction he gestured to. A pony was found, with a hole in his leg, with no arrow in sight. There was a rather large crossbow next to him. The ponies picked up both and came back to Crimson.
He immediately recognized the stallion as the one who gave him faulty information several days before. “Ensign Arctic Breeze.”
“Equestria is a cancer that must be destroyed. It’s already begun,” he replied.
“Well, you are hereby stripped of your title, rank, and any privileges previously awarded to you.” He turned to the ponies next to him. “Put him in the prison under high guard while I figure out what the hell to do with him.”
“Yes, sir.” The troops escorted the traitor away.
“Oh, and bring him to the ward before he bleeds to death.”
The troops nodded, and continued.
Crimson turned to the medics. “Bring her body to the ward and clean her up. Let’s at least make sure her burial is with dignity and respect.”
“Yes, sir.” the two said simultaneously.
Somepony’s going to pay, he thought. Somepony’s gonna pay dearly for this.